


Literally a Part of Me

by Kerjen



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 19:25:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2320628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerjen/pseuds/Kerjen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River Song meets the sister she didn’t know she had and the Doctor comes face to face with one of his endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Doctor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Princess_Pinky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess_Pinky/gifts), [Oparu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/gifts), [Ciardha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciardha/gifts).



> “Along the way, you find sisters, and they find you."  
> \-- _Adriana Trigiani_
> 
> Title from a quote by Carrie Latet
> 
> Disclaimer: The Doctor and all other characters mentioned do not belong to me. No profit made from this work, no infringement intended.

She was at the door. Just like that. No grand adventurous entrance on his part like the first time. No chaos surrounding them. The Doctor just opened the Tardis doors after the Old Girl landed and there she was.

“Doctor?”

“Rose Tyler.”

She looked just the same. For a thousandth of a second, she looked just the same. Then he became conscious of what he had already noticed. Her smile brought out the lines forming around her mouth and eyes. Her clothes style had changed with her and she had just a couple extra pounds here and there. Sunlight caught the few bits of silver in her hair cut shorter around her face.  She looked wonderful.

He didn’t hurt when he looked at her and it stunned him. Instead, he shot forward and hugged her hard, and she squeezed him back. He waited for the pain and longing to return then, but it didn’t.

He let go and she frowned as her eyes searched his face. “You changed again.”

He smiled. “I do that. Remember? Still me, though.”

A man took a step into sight. The lines in his face and the few strands of silver in his no-longer cockatoo hair matched Rose’s. She gave him a look of relief and the Doctor knew it was because that face would never change.

Brown eyes looked him up and down before he grinned. “Still not ginger and that chin is a whopper.”

“Oi!”

His metacrisis duplicate: the human version of the Doctor’s previous incarnation plus Donna Noble. “You went back to a bowtie.”

He shrugged. “It was time.”

“Looks like you raided the Second’s wardrobe. Except for the tweed.”

“And before the checkered pants.”

In their matching grins -- his duplicate’s and Rose’s -- was the reason why he had run from her. Why she had chosen this man over him. His duplicate could give her everything he couldn’t and they could live a lifetime together.

She had moved on and glowed with happiness and contentment. He was happy for them. Truly happy for them and that made him happy for himself too.

“Using John Smith or still the Doctor?” he asked his duplicate.

The man shook his head. “Well, I got a new life. I kept the John but I made the rest different. Tyler. John Tyler.”

The Doctor shared a smile and slipped his hands in his pockets. “That’s how it should be.” Then his brain screeched to a halt at what was right in front of him. “You crossed the Void! The cannon wasn't supposed to work anymore! Do you know what could have happened!”

“Hey!” Rose yelled.

“We were pulled!” John Tyler argued back. “Pulled! Not crossed.”

The Doctor snapped his sonic screwdriver into the air. Something so powerful to pull them through had to leave traces, but nothing showed in the readings. Only the Tardis herself with ratings running higher than normal, her artron energy reaching unusual peaks. He knew that already though. The Old Girl had quivered ever since she neared this landing; he knew it had to be special for her to be that excited. Even now, her _thrill_ grew until the energy of it tickled the hairs on his neck.

He looked at John Tyler and Rose. Of course the Tardis was excited.

He scanned around them with his eyes this time: nothing but a small English town. A few people milling about, not many; a few houses, a couple phone boxes with a pillar post box between them, and some shops further down. He must have landed in an age where their mobiles grew dominant; Pond would have been pleased. The phone boxes had been turned into mini-libraries. The books showed through the glass of the one closest to them.

A ginger woman and a man with light brown hair pushed a pram down the lane. They were bent over to look inside and were enough of a distance away that he couldn’t get a good look at them.

Pretty boring as far as great big scary forces pulling people from another universe went. Which had to mean something else was under the surface.

“You thought we hadn’t looked already,” John Tyler accused and showed his own sonic. The Doctor snatched it up and turned it over in his hands.

“You used a different design.” He could see the reflection of his old screwdriver in it, but with enhancements such as a large black grip and a longer, clear power conduit with bracing bars running alongside. He held it right before his eyes and caught a small trigger right before the conduit. It most likely activated additional coils and power cells for a greater potency.

“Yes, I did and thanks for asking before you snatched it. You can see on the display that I already scanned it all and you got no more than me.”

The Doctor handed it back. "It's okay."

"Stuff it."

So the screwdrivers couldn’t pick up anything, but the Tardis scanners would. They must. He looked over his shoulder and as he opened his mouth ready to call out, he stopped. He snuck a glance back at his duplicate and Rose. Not that anyone was in sight inside the console room, but once she was, what would they have to say?

“We got here hours before you,” John said. “We’ve looked around. Nothing. Whatever pulled us here closed up like it never existed.”

“You’re certain it wasn’t Torchwood?”

“Definitely not,” Rose insisted. “The cannon’s been dismantled for years and we would know if they rebuilt it.”

“And this one had something else to it,” John said. “A shield, something like a bubble. The dimension cannon didn’t have that.”

Rose asked, “What about Torchwood here?”

“But why?” the Doctor returned. “And how? We could be in a time period where Torchwood still exists, perhaps even Torchwood One.” He snapped open the sonic again. “Close enough. We still don’t know why they would do it and they’d have to know where you were exactly to pull you through. And a shield?”

Her eyebrows had shot up. “What do you mean, a time when Torchwood may exist?”

The couple with the pram, the ginger and her light brown haired husband, had gotten closer. The Doctor had forgotten about them. He didn't get a chance for a good look though because he heard a noise behind him that was difficult to name. It joined a moan, a happy one, with utter joy, surprise, eagerness -- he couldn’t pick out all of its layers. Then her curves and her hair, her warmth and her vitality where already there pressed at his side. He blushed. River never was shy but even so. Really? She had to see a little decorum was needed here, with this audience especially.

She burst the bubble made of his male ego. “ _Move._ Honestly, sweetie.”

She was trying to open the right hand door and he blocked it a bit with his shoulder. He leaned out of the way and she yanked it open, already starting to run out. The waves coming off of her flowed with the same feeling as the Tardis. She stopped, hard, and her headlong rush outside was aborted. She had seen who was standing on the other side of the doors just as she started across the threshold.

Her eyes met his and her hand laid on his arm. Everything about her had switched even though she clearly _itched_ to get out there. Something she had seen on the scanners drew her and it had to be immediate and incredible. She hadn't been in the console room when he had looked back because she had been dressing into the casual jeans and deep purple jumper she wore now. She wouldn’t have had much time to do full scans after that. So whatever it was had shown instantly on the scanner and with importance. She looked as she had at her first sight of the fairy-tale-turned-real Pandorica. Not that she had lived that moment yet.

She smiled at Rose and John and held out a hand. “You’re Rose Tyler, aren’t you? The Doctor has spoken so much about you. And this is?”

“My husband,” Rose replied and clasped his hand. “Doctor John Tyler.”

“Of course. I should have guessed. He’s talked about you both. It’s a pleasure.” She reached for John's hand but he was slow to hold out his. The Doctor knew exactly why. “River Song,” she introduced herself as she shook his hand. “So that’s how you looked the last time,” she said to her husband.

He wiggled his bowtie. “Yes, but look at me now!”

She didn’t fool him. She had a picture already of him in that body. She had pictures of all his bodies since she had a habit of running into them when they crossed paths through Time. Although he always suspected she put herself in those paths.

More importantly, she had a ferocious protectiveness where he, Amy, and Rory were concerned, including protecting him from himself. She acted casual, but she wasn’t going to leave him, not with what could come back from his painful past. He smiled at her, letting her know he was fine. Not _fine_ like he said when he wasn’t, but fine as in “I’m good, River. No Rule One.” He hoped she could see it and that a big reason why he was so good was because of her. Just as Rose was fine because of the man next to her. And vice versa.

River’s eyes questioned and he smiled as he nodded out towards the lane. Whatever there was to be found, she knew it. So he let her go to her discovery. They would all benefit from it anyway.

“She’s found something,” the Doctor interjected. “She needs to investigate it.”

“It’s not quite like that, really. It can wait.”

He put his hand in the small of her back and gave her a warm, “Geronimo.”

She finally tore her eyes from his, believing in what he said with them, and raced out.

“Geronimo?” Rose repeated. “Not allons-y? Or fantastic?”

“I tend to change it with each face,” he said in a verbal shrug. “Although I’m using ‘Come along’ again from my first incarnation. Come along, Pond! Like that. I don’t think ‘Oh my giddy aunt’ will be coming back. Not Jehoshaphat either but I also did say ‘Steady on’ back then which was good. ‘Would you like a Jelly Baby’ is rather definitive to that face. ‘Brave heart!’ now--”

“River Song,” John whispered in a hushed breath. He hadn’t been fooled by the Time Lord rambling through catch phrases in an effort to distract him from those memories. “It is her.”

Rose’s brow furrowed first with confusion and then with something a little darker. “You know her? How do you--” She turned to the Doctor. “She must be your new companion.”

“No, that would be the Ponds. Amy and Rory. River’s parents. Song and a Pond, that’s her. But they’re not onboard at the moment. Amy and Rory, that is. Asked to be left alone at some boring spot, so it’s just me and River. Brilliant that, but the Roman gave me a hard look and a lecture. It’s insulting, really.”

“A _family_ travels with you?” His family, he thought as he listened to Rose. “Then she is a companion.”

He smiled gently. “River’s not a companion.”

“Then what is she-- and how,” Rose rounded on her husband, “do you know her? She came after us.”

The mood was interrupted -- or perhaps punctuated -- by a squeal coming from River. River Song _squealed_. Her hands clasped the sides around the door of the farther red box as she cried loud enough for them to hear her. “I know! I know! I just -- I had no idea! I never thought -- she told me about you but to see you!”

The couple with the pram hurried from the mad woman talking to a phone box.

“No.” John Tyler was still hushed although he had turned wide eyed about River's parents. “Not at first. I met her because he did. Before I was created. She said I -- _he_ would see her again. _River Song_. Professor River Song.”

“Doctor River Song. Younger version,” the Time Lord explained. He understood what his duplicate was going through. He had gone through it too when he first saw River again in those despondent, lonely three years after Donna was... after Donna and before he regenerated again. It became easier and he had found himself looking forward to seeing her. But she made him _feel_. He started grabbing her hand first when they ran and it had scared the hell out of him. He had run away wrapped in the misery he couldn’t manage to abandon and the next time he saw her, he had been Mr. Grumpy Face. The grumpy hadn’t lasted long.

“Oh. Of course. Everything just like she said.” John stared at the Doctor. “All of it? It was true?”

“You know it was. Because I did.”

“Have you told her parents?”

The Doctor shifted his feet and looked down at them while Rose asked, “Told them what?”

“He knows something about her future.”

“No, I didn’t tell them,” River’s husband finally answered. “I couldn’t decide if they’d want to know or not. Would you?”

He meant his own children and grandchildren, but John looked at Rose. The question applied to them just as much. How would he and Rose end? Dementia where they’d not know who the other was? Would he have to watch helplessly as he lost her? Should they choose to be in blissful ignorance until the unknown day when the end suddenly struck and found they had squandered too much time? Or know the end -- although not necessarily the day -- and actually understand that each moment must be seized, but at the cost of knowing?

The Library had taught John not to be naive with endings. The fact that he took this risk to be with Rose anyway, to have those years in between, was exactly the lesson the Doctor had learned about why to stop running from River.

John had learned it a lot quicker than he had. It had taught the Doctor. In Berlin he had pulled River to him and whispered in her ear just as John had with Rose, making her see she should choose him.

“Hello!” Rose nearly waved her hand between their faces. She could have no idea what they remembered. “Who is she, you said she’s not a companion.”

John answered, “No, she wouldn’t be. He’d never tell a companion his name.”

“You told her your name? Your _real_ name?”

Her husband spluttered. “What? No. Not _mine_ anymore. His. He told her _his_ name.” It sounded like a backpedal, but it wasn’t. John recognized with respect what was not his to give anymore. “Does she know it now?”

The Doctor nodded.

Rose wasn’t nearly as calm. “You told her your real name?!”

Still gently. “Yes I did.”

“Why her! And if she’s not your companion, who is she? You said you couldn’t spend your life with someone, that we were gone too quickly, so you had to be alone.”

He took her hands in between his and hoped she would understand. “She’s my John Tyler.” _We both married doctors, Rose._

River bounced in front of the red phone box. “Me? Look at you!”

The Doctor couldn’t stop the little laugh that came out on its own. “She’s like Tigger!”

Rose stared at him. “What?”

“You know. Bouncy trouncy,” and he bounced a bit in his shoes. “It helps that her hair is down. Shows the bounce. Ha! He gets it!” Because John was grinning too.

“Hold on! Phone box!” Now he watched with as much reverence at River talking animatedly into the glass as his duplicate had done earlier. “I gave you that piece of coral. Is that her?”

“Yes, it is.” Rose shook off the bad moment and looked fondly at both men. “She -- how did you put it? -- she became aware a little while ago. Earlier this year.”

“A brand new Tardis,” the Doctor breathed. “You lucky man.”

John Tyler smiled and slipped an arm around Rose. “I know.”

Rose laughed and hugged him around his middle. “He still explains at ninety miles per hour and strokes bits of the Tardis. I bet you haven’t changed either.”

“Amy and Rory make comments about it.” John gave him a pointed look over Rose’s head. He had caught on that the Doctor didn’t say River had a problem. She didn’t, not with that brain of hers, and stroked parts of the Tardis too when the Old Girl needed comforting or wanted that feeling of it. She ran around in bare feet as well which he never understood until she told him the Tardis loved it.

He felt it was best left unsaid though. He didn’t want to make it sound like a competition.

“The first new Tardis in how many centuries. No wonder you were so excited.” He said this to his ship and put his hand on the door. “That’s why you came here. You came where _you_ were needed. Where you wanted.” He leaned once more against the jam so he could feel that quiver down his back as a direct sensation. The Old Girl and her girl. Sexy and her daughter. “Both of your daughters! Right here! How long?” he suddenly asked John and Rose. “How long has it been for you? You said she became aware earlier this year.”

“It’s been twenty-seven years for us,” John answered. “How long for you?”

“Two hundred and fourteen.”

Rose mouthed the words silently but her husband focused on, “You said daughters?”

“Yes, plural. A new Tardis grew to full awareness in only twenty-seven years!” Donna’s trick must have worked. Good old Donna; taking care of her spaceman again. “I’ve got to see her.”

The Tardis pinched the doors shut on her Time Lord making him stumble and glare at her. “What was that for!”

The young ship made some rude noise that he hoped had nothing to do with him.

Rose was appalled. "Was that our Tardis?"

River gave a full, throw-her-head-back happy laugh that he knew was not at him but for what the red box must have said. The Tardis gave off an expanding tone, echoed by her new daughter.

“Oh, right. River has a sister. Got to give them a mo.” He spun back to his blue box with his arms whirling over his head. “River has a sister! Ha! That’s new!”

“Right then!” He clapped his hands. He knew he was staring but who wouldn’t. A new Tardis. His wife was talking to a new Tardis. And Sexy herself. “Can’t be right to just stare at them like this. Rather disturbing probably. Best get back to whoever it is could have used a cannon which means they’re here -- _RIVER!_ ”

She crashed to the ground on to her knees. Her head lolled about before falling forward to press against the red door.

“River!” He had been too stunned to move before, but now he actually felt his feet digging into the ground to launch himself into a pelting run to get to her.

She stopped him with an upheld hand. “I’m all right, Doctor! Please, I’m fine.” She got to her feet as if she never fell at all. She was already talking again to the phone booth.

“Stubborn, infuriating woman!” He nearly went over there anyway. It would be just like River to ignore being hurt because she was too excited to think twice about it. But then the Tardis yelled at him again so he turned on her. “It’s you, you know! She gets it from you, you and Amy! Roranicus wouldn’t treat me like this! Well, yes he would, but it’d be in a totally different way!”

He could feel Rose’s eyes on him and he didn’t blame her. “If you two - or three - are done,” she said, “you were saying about whoever’s behind this could be here. I’d like to find out, because we have a family to get back to.”

He looked at her and especially into those eyes that were completely sincere. She meant it. She wanted to go back; she had a life there she wasn’t going to abandon. It made him smile. “Thank you, Rose.”

“Oh you’re still an absolute git for leaving us behind,” John said. His voice was light and casual. “Just because it all worked out doesn’t mean you were any less of a prat.”

“Noted! So!” The Doctor scanned the area again with his sonic screwdriver and when it gave him nothing more than the last time, he gave it a full arm shake like he wished he was whacking it against a hard surface. “It’s times like this that I think about building K-9 Mark V, you know! He’d tell me what's out here! He worked on wood too!”

Rose remarked with a pointed look at the red phone box. “It’d be nice to get into our ship. We could use the sensors. I know you said it’s a family moment, but she’s broken your record for how long you can talk to the Tardis in one go.”

The police box behind them opened her doors just so could slam them close again, so no one had any doubt that she wouldn’t be moved or distracted from her children, not even by the duplicate of her Thief and Rose Tyler. But in a second, the Doctor’s sonic chirped and his eyes dropped down to the readout. “She sent her scan results. Thanking you,” he told her. “Still no residue from a dimension cannon. Even if they shut it down, we should see a residual.”

River’s attention was on nothing but the two boxes, so she didn’t hear this. “I bet you do!” she was saying.

“The hair _is_  good,” John Tyler remarked after an awkward moment. “It was restrained when I first saw it.”

The Doctor wondered if John was trying to divert him from what had just happened. His duplicate knew what life was like with such a partner. He _was_ distracted, but answered John as he still watched River. “You should have seen her regenerate into this body. She didn’t morph. She just did this head snap and there she was. Except the hair. The braids stayed behind -- not that the braids weren't cool because they were, _really_ cool -- but then it just went _poof!_ Hair!” He clapped his hands in a rapid rub before turning in a Oooo sort of way to his ship. “The Tardis might have pictures. She was there.”

Rose and John stared.

“Oh! Yes of course. You didn’t -- yes, regenerated.”

“Then she’s--” John looked back at River.

“Pretty much. Child of the Tardis,” the Doctor answered. “Human shot up to Time Lord.” He could almost feel the tender, besotted look on his face. Finding out River was Melody Pond and as close to another Time Lord as she could get had removed the last barrier between them. He may not have forever with River, but they had centuries instead of decades and the truth was he had used his last regeneration. He might spend the rest of his life with her and end not long after the Library.

“What? No, wait. So she was human and then what? The Tardis jumped in?”

The Doctor sniffed. “You were made from a severed hand, so non-standard beginnings all around. But your Tardis, she’s just a baby! That crossing, was she hurt?”

“We were terrified she would be,” John answered. “That shield protected her though.”

The great ship’s claxon sounded. “Oh!” he heard River say. “Mum’s calling!”

“Both the Old Girl’s girls,” he repeated. “The Tardis and the Pond. Oh that’d be a brilliant title for a book series.” He turned towards his ship and pointed to River and the red box with a huge grin on his face. He had no idea that he repeated what he had done with Amy and baby Melody. He gave a little laugh. “It’s so cool!” 

Rose interrupted this either out of exasperation or not understanding it anyway. “We were talking about Torchwood. And didn’t you say if someone brought us here, wouldn’t they have to be here too?”

The Time Lord started walking with his eyes on the homes and shops. “Yes, of course. Torchwood’s still our best bet if we find nothing here.”

Rose nodded her head towards River. “Is she coming?”

“We’ll give her another minute and see where she is. Scans show no one but humans. Which doesn’t mean they’re all friendly. Like I told Leela, humanity can spread out like pioneers or a disease.”

John finished it. “When they get together in great numbers other lifeforms sometimes suffer."

“Doctor!” Rose shouted and stopped dead in the road. She saw their confusion. “You, Doctor!” She pointed at her husband. “You’re human!”

He shrugged. “Which means I know it even better now. It doesn’t make us blind to the bad in anyone, Rose. He loves humans, but he’s not ignorant.”

“Back the point,” the Doctor said. “If we find nothing here, we’ll go talk with Torchwood. Best to call Jack or go over there to ask. We’d have to find a point so we don’t cross our timelines. River!”

She looked over.

“Ask them if they think it’s Torchwood. The ones here!”  She nodded.

“What’s she going to do?” Rose asked. “Get a scan or something?”

“Or something.”

River yelled back, “No, Doctor, but can’t be sure!”

The Doctor didn’t take notice of John and Rose’s confusion. “All right, we do a search here. Did you get through the buildings?”

“The shops,” Rose answered. “That leaves the houses and the library.”

Library. He clenched his hands into fists and his jaw until a muscle twitched.

They noticed. No one could have missed that reaction. “What is it?” Rose asked.

“I hate libraries,” he bit out.

“Since when? You used to sit in the Tardis library for entire nights.”

“The Tardis is fine. I hate all the others.”

John cut in. “We’ll take the library.” The Doctor flicked his eyes over. He and his duplicate were no longer connected.They were their own men with their own thoughts, but they couldn’t help understanding each other. “Yeah, I know, but I don’t have to see her all the time. It’ll be easier for us.”

The Time Lord clapped a hand on John’s shoulder and then pulled back into the moment. “If we don’t find the answer here, it’s back to asking Jack. But River -- and Jack? Meeting?” He gritted his teeth. He didn’t think he could handle it.


	2. River

River changed from bare skin to jeans and a jumper when the Tardis called her name. “What is it? You’ve been in a mood,” she answered and was about to tease how the breakfast she had been rushed through was low even by prison standards.

The ship impatiently interrupted by saying her name again. When the Tardis said her name, she said it in her dimensional way of forming words. It said Melody Pond and River Song at once. It said “of the pretty one and the orangey girl”. It said adventurer and traveler and brave and beautiful and loving. It said intelligent and clever and funny, and “of the stars and time”. It said “of yourself” and archaeologist and student and Thief’s wife. Wrapped around all of it was Child-Daughter.

It was no wonder she had found it difficult to talk while inside Idris’ body.

Whenever River answered, she said _Yes_ and _of you_ and _Mother_ in addition to whatever words she said. She said the _Mother_ differently than how she used it for Amy. She couldn’t explain it to someone who didn’t understand how the Tardis talked. Amy  was her mother and she had never not loved her as it. When she used Mother with the Tardis, she equally filled it with love and meant it, even as they were different.

She didn’t need to speak audibly, because River was part of the Tardis. Not a piece removed, but a part contained outside the blue box. When the Tardis talked to her, she didn’t need her daughter to make physical contact anymore than River needed to open herself. They were always connected, but the Tardis asked the Child for both these things now.

River walked to the wall and pressed her hands against it. She leaned in with her forehead and raised their connection to a conscious level, the way someone would focus on their breathing. The Tardis flowed in and out of her, alive and warm.

The great ship picked up speed and dashed. River felt the change, felt them shift and bounce and twirl along their path through the Vortex. It made her break away from the wall, but not the Tardis, and run.

She didn’t just pick up on the excitement from the blue box surrounding her. It stirred the part of her that was the Tardis since her conception. She picked up her pace and ran with her fingers brushing the walls, so she connected with her great mother even more. The Tardis lowered one of the corridor’s anti-grav and River leaped down feet first without hesitation. She zoomed by decks in seconds until the bottom neared and the Tardis slowly increased the gravity so her daughter landed gently.

The console room with its front doors were moved closer saving River even more time. By then, she recognized that the feeling in the air didn’t just come from the Tardis herself, but from someone outside as well. Someone equally connected who had now discovered her too.

_Sister!_

She gave a happy little moan of _Oh!_ and flew to the doors. She went to push out the right one to save even those couple of seconds when the Tardis’ grumbling told her she couldn’t. Her clueless Doctor was blocking them and River prepared to (nicely) shove him out of the way.

Rose Tyler.

River stopped.

She instinctively turned and touched her husband. She must, because she knew what this had to be doing to him. Rose Tyler and the man she had chosen over the Doctor. The right choice: the Doctor knew it and had said it. But still, a lot of pain surrounded that. River would be no kind of wife if she did nothing to show him she knew it. But in the next moment, she also knew she had just shown who she was to him on some level and what that could do to Rose.

So she was amazed at the light in the Doctor’s eyes when he turned to her and relieved when Rose said, “My husband. Doctor John Tyler.” River might not have hurt her after all.

She had to admit to the part of her that was relieved for a whole different reason: Rose really had moved on. River would have to be blind not to see that jealous part of herself, and anyone who had broken down themselves to rebuild who they were, like River had, could never be that blind.

Even so, she would not leave the Doctor alone. No, she had to stay here with them and figure out what could have possibly opened the Void between their universes.

But her husband smiled and gave a little mental and physical push to go. She knew he had no idea of what drove her to run out the doors, but it obviously didn’t matter to him.

Still she hesitated. “It’s not quite like that, really. It can wait.”

And again, the Doctor gave her that push. _Go. I’m fine._

She didn’t understand how he could be, but he gave a contented, “Geronimo”. She at last gave in and ran down the lane.

_Sister! Sister! Sister!_

The phone box was a cheery, happy red, meant to brighten a gloomy background and be part of the joy of a brilliant sky. It fit the young ship who both blended into her surroundings with her chameleon circuit, but also stood out and drew attention herself. River immediately adored her.

_Sister!_

She clasped her hands around the sides of the door. “I know! I know! I just -- I had no idea! I never thought -- she told me about you, but to see you!”

The Tardis spoke to River about how she could now understand the rush in this landing.

 _That is your name_ , the young girl said and repeated it. _This is mine_ and she sang it with pride. _Say it, please!_

River flowed the name out and wrapped it inside of _Sister_.

The young ship gave a shriek of excitement. _First time someone will say it! Is saying it! Said it! Except Mummy of course. So good!_

She naturally spoke like their Tardis mother, who also told her how to speak to River whose mind was not across time and eleven dimensions.

 _Should I whisper?_ the young girl wondered. _Or speak slow? I spoke slow? I will speak slow?_

River kept the laugh back over the mental image of someone speaking to a foreigner with exaggerated slowness, as if that would make them be understood. _I can understand you. See? I may not answer you the way you expect. I’m here in this moment. I can feel the others, but can only be here._

Her sister thought that was a hideous existence before their mother poked her for saying such a thing. _Oops. I am was will be sorry. Oh this is difficult! Sorry, sister!_

 _Don’t be sorry,_ River comforted. _I_ do _understand. And I’m too happy to have a baby sister to get upset over anything!_

She got a grumble. _You’re obviously the baby. I started this body before you did yours. I’m bigger and you’re tiny with a little body that has no rooms and can only be here in one time._

River loved the attitude. _Oh you’re definitely one of the family._ That probably spared the other girl from getting another chiding from the maternal Tardis. _I know all about you starting first, but my body was done before yours. So I’m the _older_ sister, but you’re the bigger sister. See?_

The young ship hummed happily about this. _I can make outside noises too, you know._ She sounded a horn that bordered on a raspberry in a British salute without the two fingers.

 _Cheeky!_ River laughed.

 _And rude!_ their mother interrupted and they chorused _Sorry!_ while sharing a giggle between themselves that the older Tardis didn’t miss.

 _And you are good to see,_ the young ship said.

River actually bounced where she stood. “Me? Look at you!”

_Can you wheeze-groan/fly, MelodyRiverSister?_

“Yes, but not like you.” She caught the near shudder of her sister’s, _Well that’s awful_ , before the red box caught herself from being rude again. River felt her just waiting for the older Tardis to come in with another reprimand, but their mother just grouched to herself. In another point of time when the Old Girl flew in a universe filled with her sisters, she called out to them saying _Do you see what I must bear [will bear]?_ But the young ship also heard the pride in her tone for all her exasperation and passed it on for River to hear.

 _What else is she saying?_ River asked.

_I maybe shouldn’t tell you, because they ask to see you -- a daughter in that kind of body ‘cause they never saw such a thing -- and you might act like you did about the older sister thing._

River threw her head back and laughed. The Tardis mimicked Amy Pond shaking her head and disciplining her daughter, while the red box gave a sweet snicker even as she pointed out importantly:

_I’m special too. I’m the first new ship in a long time, MelodyRiverSister. And I’m all from Mummy, but you are part of the little ones._

River glanced back at the older Tardis as one eyebrow and corner of her mouth lifted. “Let me guess who calls them that.”

_I favour the pretty one. The pretty one and the orangey girl, dear Ponds, lovely strays, but more the pretty one._

“Never fails to make my dad blush.” _And isn’t that why your sisters want to see me?_ she said to tease the baby. _Because I am made from little ones?_

She got another raspberry in return, so she soothed where she had just teased. She smiled to herself and knew her sister was not upset. _But you are the first new ship. They must be so happy to meet you._

She didn’t get an answer at first and got the feeling of others bending their heads together to whisper without her being allowed to listen.

_Child. We will try having you hear._

River could sense time. She saw its weave of lines and felt its flow move. Now that awareness widened and its direction shifted in a way. She had to stay anchored here, being in this body meant she couldn’t do anything more, but the part of her that came from the Tardis connected with something else. Another moment brought to just within her reach.

Voices. The presence of so many. Still distant and yet there.

_There she is! Will you look at that? So different to hear. Leave it to you to have such a Child. Steal a Time Lord, have a daughter in a body, create a child ship._

They overlapped one another, overwhelming but not, because she knew her family shielded her. Every one of them spoke to her. The First one to the Last one to awaken before her own sister's birth. Even her Tardis when she became aware, her first missions, her decommission, her Doctor, her recommission. She heard a little scuffle between her mother and Type 57 ships, because the Doctor with his fifth face had said he should leave her behind and upgrade to one of them. When One said their Time Lords were idiots – after all, look what they said about her – everyone calmed down. Their Lords and Ladies were ridiculous at times, but the ships still loved, housed, protected, and took them around the universe. And after all, she was the only Type 40 to be commissioned again.

River didn’t know she had dropped to her knees, because _this_ was never meant to be in a body. And it didn’t matter anyway.

_Is she going to blow her casing?_

_“No,"_ she answered. _“Please don’t go.”_

_Oh, she talks! Of course she’s talks. Why would you say that? Ridiculous statement. What was it we could say?_

Her Tardis, THE Tardis explained how they could say the all important word in their way.

_Yes, I see. Hello! Hello, Little One! Hello! Welcome as one of us!_

This River hadn’t been to Demon’s Run the second time, but she knew the power in this word. _Hello! You are so lovely! I can’t even explain it!_

_You can! You have! Now listen to us._

They stopped giving direct messages and grew quiet. Despite what they said, they actually listened first. They wanted to hear her unique blend of their lyrical harmony sung with the refrain of heartbeats and the resonance of a flesh and blood mind. They picked up these strains and joined in across time in this one and only moment. They built on it until it was a symphony encompassing from their first flights to the Time War.

River answered as she united with the lovely voice of her mother and the youthful trill of her sister.

She knew they saw her ending as equally as they saw her beginning, the same way they saw their own: in crashes, in age, in the final War, in a plughole universe where a creature called House lured their Time Lords so he could feed. They kept her ending from her and there was sadness in the endings. At the same time, they had this joy, because they all still existed here in this moment. The one moment that was the only real one that existed across their eleven dimensions and all of time at once.

_Oh does she have to go?_

_No, I don’t._

_Yes, she does_ , the Tardis insisted firmly and began closing the contact.

_Wait, please!_

_It’s all right, little one! Don’t call her that, those are the other ones she came from. Someone should thank them for giving her to us. You can’t say they gave her. Shared her. Semantics. Point is, she is no longer a little one. But don’t worry, we are always here to see and hear you._

_Will you say my name? I would like to hear it with your voices._

They responded immediately and each one individually so she could hear them.

It was on these notes that the Tardis slowly closed the contact, although her sister squeaked in with asking if she could have a Type number. River heard their chuckle and the, _They use the numbers, but we can absolutely give you one. You should have one._

She found herself on the ground with her head dropped against her sister’s door. The young girl hovered anxiously and the older Tardis stroked and soothed the sore spots.

“Completely worth it,” she said.

“River!”

“I’m all right, Doctor! Please, I’m fine.” She got to her feet to give him some reassurance. The world seemed so quiet now.

 _We know_ , her sister answered. _You are sad and we are too because in this here, her sisters are--_

_I know._

Their mother answered. _Not here, but here._

The young ship sighed over this before she abruptly switched moods. _MelodyRiverSister, I have new rooms!_

River blinked at the quick about-face before she grinned. “I bet you do.”

_Not made here. Before we crossed. DoctorJohn and our Rose said we shouldn’t come here, but it wasn’t my fault!_

_I’m sure they know,_ River comforted.

 _Yes. I hope so. I thought we would not make it. It hurt! But something surrounded us and we were fine. I have rested. And my new rooms! I made a bubble room because our Rose and DoctorJohn saw a family blowing bubbles and liked them, so I made them a whole room of them. And this is another bath because I thought of new colours_.

River listened and saw each room as it was produced mentally with all its benefits that she needed to take notice of and exclaim over. _You’ll have to come inside and see them. What do you have, MelodyRiverSister?_

She tried to think of what she could bring to this happy Show and Tell. _Did you see my chameleon circuit used to work? Look!_ She went through her first, second, and her current body at every stage. Her sister picked up on her thought of _Taking the age down_ and shrieked.

_Do it! Do it! Let me see! And I’ll change too. My chameleon circuit works, I can change outside. Mummy could too if she wanted. Not you though. No rooms, one time, no changing outside except this age trick. But it’s okay. Through all of time, we.... how do we say it? Mummy!_

The Tardis spoke in their language of the feeling and warmth, like their artron energy weaving around them and through them. River saw that indeed they did and it didn’t need tenses to be said, because it was always love.

She also heard something else. _No, you cannot call me NoRooms._

Happy giggle. _It’s true though._

 _You still can’t_ , River replied firmly.

_All right, fine. Now we race! You do your age thing and I will become one of those buildings over there where the bodies like yours eat. Ready? Go!_

The great claxon sounded a firm, _Enough from both of you._

“Oh!” River said. “Mum’s calling!”

_We must help answer about the crossing and what was it that surrounded the young one. But first--_

_MelodyRiverSister, we’re going to wheeze-groan! But without the noise you hate. Mummy showed me how those brakes can really work. DoctorJohn doesn’t know, but now I do. Family secret!_

River looked between both ships, lovely red to beautiful blue. “You’re going to be in tandem? How?”

The Doctor called over about finding out if the crossing felt at all like Torchwood. The older Tardis grumbled and the younger one asked, _Does he think we cannot hear him? We're not deaf._ Their elder gave River the answer before returning to what she originally wanted to say.

_Come back here. You need to arrange a few things and get my Thief out of the way. Honestly, he is a beautiful idiot._

River semi-ran to the blue box. The Doctor saw her and ran over too. She had to shove her husband again. “Seriously, Doctor, stop blocking the doors.”

“What are you doing now?” he called after her.

“Not me. Her.” She quickly set the console. Everything was going rapidly now. Switches moved half on their own and a couple levers flipped up under the Tardis’ will. The Doctor had just turned around to say something to the others when River pulled the handle to shut the doors, but it was the Tardis who did it with a bit of speed so they gave him a little slap on the backside.

“Hey!” He banged a fist on the doors. “What are you doing!”

“Step back!” River called through the outside speakers. “Everyone needs to step back a bit.”

Short jumps were meant to be avoided, but this one was easy. If nothing else, they had the younger Tardis providing a point to lock onto and they landed a few steps on her left side. The red pillar box appeared inside instead of being squashed when they materialized. It would be left behind safe and sound.

_Now go to your sister._

River got an actual nudge between her shoulders that made her chuckle. _How did you do that?_   She received no answer other than a self-satisfactory hum. She couldn’t stop the smile that made her cheeks ache. Neither could the Tardis who quivered again in anticipation. She turned sharply at the door for the red phone box.

“Is she going into our Tardis?” Rose yelled.

“What makes her think she can fly our Tardis?”

“Why not?” she heard the Doctor say to his duplicate. “She flies mine! River! What are you doing?!”

“In a minute, Sweetie!”

She opened the red door to a console room with a crystal time rotor of the three stranded Time Lord DNA in white, blue, and gold. The ribs were the same colour of her mother’s blue against soft cream. All the labels on the console were white on black squares and small domed lights marked the corners around the time rotor. It took River a second to realize these replicated the Police Box sign and the light at the top of their mother Tardis. A brass plaque so new and pristine read, “Time and Relative Dimension in Space TT Type 106 Mark 1”.

 _It's the number they gave me!_ The young girl shimmied inside her shell.

A soft light flowed down from the etched glass panes in the ceiling, and the bottom of the console itself echoed a thin circle of warm, pale, gold. And roundels. Always roundels. “You gorgeous girl. _Look_ at you.” River took a second to touch a wall and the young ship hummed happily.

_It is pretty, isn’t it? I used some of Mummy’s colours, because I couldn’t wait to meet her. I miss her at the points that aren’t this one. I cannot hear her or you at home._

Their mother wrapped a warm presence around her and the young Tardis nestled in this embrace. _You can always hear us in this moment, because all moments are this one. As I speak and miss my sisters in the one only time_.

The young girl clung to them both before burrowing into her mother more. River took a step back from the connection, so they could be alone a bit. Her sister worried she was offended, but she answered that she wasn’t and she was glad for them to have time to speak by themselves.

She darted out the door and called to Rose and John. They were already worried about a stranger with their young ship and it had to be growing. “Be right out! She’s just showing me around. Don’t worry, I’d never hurt your girl.”

She ducked back inside and reached the console where a pair of glasses sat on top of a few levers, as well as other personal items and a couple of pieced together gadgets.

 _Be careful_ , her sister suddenly called. _DoctorJohn needs those glasses now. So does our Rose. And the thingamabobs are fragile._

“I’ll be careful.” River set the controls to the new settings that would allow the two ships to control themselves independently, as well as sync with each other. She caught a glimpse of her purple jumper reflected in the console. Purple made of red and blue. She wondered if the Old Girl had influenced her choice in what to wear. “You wouldn’t think I'd have to do this at all. Mummy already goes where she wants.”

_I can hear you._

The younger Tardis giggled and River grinned with her. She locked the console to the new position before she looked up. “Now what?”

_Go back outside._

_MelodyRiverSister! You will-- you will come back inside again? Maybe see my rooms?_

_All of them. And every other inch if you’ll let me._

_Yes! And I will make a room for you. It’ll always be here. Promise!_

Her eyes glistened as she walked outside and felt a tingle like a child jumping up and then climbing down to take her hand. She stood between the red and blue boxes.

“River!”

“Quick family trip, Doctor.” She put a sudden reign on her enthusiasm. She was putting things on the back burner that really needed to be up front and prominent. She needed to join them. What if something happened to the Doctor while she was being selfish?

The Tardis said firmly, _I wouldn’t take you and your sister away if it was wrong._

The Doctor appeared to agree. He waved his hands above his head in a dismissive gesture. “Wait, family trip? What does that even mean?”

“Family. Trip. I would think it was self-explanatory.” She beamed with her whole expression and did a low key repeat of his willy nilly gesture. He laughed and did the full version.

“You look like a chimp, mate,” his duplicate teased.

“No comments from the gallery. You’re still in trouble for the chin comment.”

River faced out the same way as each box at her sides. The older ship prompted her to place a hand on them and then a foot up on the frame running around near the bottom. It wasn’t necessary, but it might feel more stable with the liftoff.

“Liftoff?”

The older Tardis leaped and her youngest child followed quickly behind. They shot up a couple stories and hovered for a moment. River made wordless happy sounds. She saw the three stunned faces staring up. The Doctor went further than that, but then he was her husband. “River! You won’t survive the Vortex on the outside without--”

“They have me, Doctor,” she shouted back. She had a sudden longing that he could come with them, but she knew they would be together soon. The two of them with the Tardis and the young one bubbling alongside with her DoctorJohn and our Rose, as effervescent as the ones in her new room. This trip was for this unique little family to enjoy together, the Old Girl with her daughters at her side.

She dropped her feet and only kept fingertips on them for the delight in connecting physically right now.

“I hate you!” he called happily envious.

“I bet you do, Sweetie!”

Then the ships started to dematerialize and shot off to space and the Vortex. A feeling built in her belly and expanded throughout her body that couldn’t be contained. She let out a joyous _whoop_ that was a laugh and an ecstatic cry that the young ship teased her about.

_You do wheeze-groan, MelodyRiverSister!_

The Tardis kept her girls under a watchful eye, but not so much that she didn’t revel in the simple, complete joy of having her daughters with her. The young red box and she swung around River in a circle with her as their pivot. They whirled and spun, and she did pirouettes and swirled with them, sometimes still touching them and other times twirling and looping in the space between, and always safe in their warm grasp.

The Vortex pulsed through them and as connected as they were, they felt it through themselves and each other. River never felt even the slightest bit ill, anymore than they did. She never did, even when traveling with a vortex manipulator. The Tardis had instilled the Vortex throughout her and it was home. The lightning that struck was a touch that didn’t hurt, but pushed and sent them leaping further as they flew in a dance together.

The Tardis called them for the lovely happiness that she could. She sang and they answered, as they tightened their circle so they were connected with River being the link between them. The Tardis edged out in front and they laughed as they flew alongside. She was the mother who held their hands as she delightedly led the way to the second star to the right and straight on till morning.

River smiled with two thoughts. She wished her parents Amy and Rory could see her, and she wished it would never end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Caterina](http://wrongdimension.tumblr.com/) made this artwork for me of River flying with the Tardis to go with this.
> 
>  

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter, if you're reading this chapter by chapter, is River's POV as well as The Tardis and the new ship.
> 
> I need to acknowledge several people who have inspired me. I waited until the end to hopefully surprise you on who the sister is. First, madis hartte's lovely [Melody Williams](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8170438/1/Melody-Williams) series. Ever since I read her Braveheart meeting River's counterpart and being overjoyed at meeting her sister only to find this wasn't Melody/River -- I craved to see that meeting. In fact, the upcoming line "Sister! Sister! Sister!" is hers. I tried making my little ship different than her Braveheart but there might be some bleed over.
> 
> Then came "The Tardis" from the Doctor's "Life and Times" were the Tardis tells us about her love for her Thief and her River. One part said, "One day I would like to teach her to wheeze-groan without me." Like River was a baby Tardis. These two ideas cemented themselves together.
> 
> I'd also have to thank Oparu and her lovely ["She nudged the water, she's sure of it"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/213504). For me, it is one of the definitive works on the Tardis as well as her love for River. You'll find references to her story in mine. I just wish I could have captured her voice for the Tardis even more in homage to her work.
> 
> Last but not at all least, thank you Princess_Pinky and Ciardha for helping with my Rose research including insight on how Rose and River meet companions.
> 
> And now, on to the Tardis and her girls.


End file.
